Rickenbacker 4001
by Jak0TheShadows
Summary: Naota's all grown up. And really, what is there to do in the world for a guy who's already experienced having robots and pseudogods come out of his head? Naota's bored. That is... Until he meets a young girl who reminds him of someone.
1. Hyena

Disclaimer: I do not own FLcL. I never will own FLcL. Don't sue me.

Synopsis: Naota's all grown up. And really, what is there to do in the world for a guy who's already experienced having robots and pseudogods come out of his head? Naota's bored. That is... until he meets a young girl who reminds him of someone.

* * *

"I know you... You captured my eyes..." he broke off in snickering and shook his head. "That would never work." 

As he often did the young man looked up at the slowly darkening sky and sighed. She never came back. She said she would but it's been nine whole years and Naota had yet to see any sign of the woman who had forever changed his life.

Nine years had passed by and each year had seemed more dull and uninteresting than the last. After going through excitement such as what he'd gone through just about everything seemed dull in comparison.

He leaned on the old railing of the bridge, rusted from years of exposure to the elements, and took a long drink from the unmarked alcoholic beverage in his hand. Its eerie how similar every city looks when you've traveled as far as Naota has. Eerie... and depressing. It didn't matter how far Naota rode on his Vespa, every single city always looked like Mabase. Naota looked down the river at city with a smirk. More specifically, at the large iron shaped monolith halfway down a hill that now rested unused; vines growing up its side as a testament to this fact. "Halfway around the world in America and its still just like Mabase..."

Naota kicked off from the railing and hopped onto his waiting Vespa. He started the engine and drove.

If anyone found it odd to see an early twenties Japanese man driving through an ass-end-of-nowhere south western town in America on a bright red Vespa with a Rickenbacker 4001 strapped on his back... not a single person commented or said anything to him as he drove through, and out of the town.

* * *

"One ticket to Tokyo, Japan," Naota said as he approached the desk, his turn having now come. 

"Alright," the nice but that intelligent looking American woman smiled at him, "So is that two bags you'll be checking then?"

"Two? No no, just one."

The woman continued smiling, "I'm sorry sir but your bag is simply to large to be a carry on."

"Bag?" Naota looked down at the large blueish greenish bag full of clothing and other amenities that sat patiently at his side on the floor. "Of course I know that, I'm checking the bag," he laughed at her joke. "I guess it is a little large but I don't think its necessary to count it as two bags!"

The woman seemed taken aback and her smile faltered for a moment, "Um... I'm sorry sir but we don't allow guitar's as carry ons if that's what you're hoping."

Naota's laughter stopped, "This isn't a guitar," and he ripped the Rickenbacker 4001 off his back and slammed it forcefully into the counter. This garnered a rather shocked response from not only the woman but also the various people waiting in lines near or behind Naota. "This," he said and brought the Rickenbacker up into the air again, grasping it by the neck as if it were a bat. "This is a bass."

With that said Naota swung the bass as if it were a bat and slammed the body of it into the side of the woman's head. There was a slight pause as if everyone and everything needed a second to process just what had happened. And then everything happened at once.

The woman flew through the air, the shock on her face not doing justice to what was going on in her head, and probably would have continued flying through the air had she not collided with the man who had been working next to her.

As this happened the dark haired woman in line behind Naota screamed in a combination of confusion and horror at the actions of the man in front of her, Naota.

Simultaneously, one of the airport security saw Naota's action and called into his walkie talkie that a suspicious Asian man had just assaulted one of the airport employees with a guitar.

Following these three actions numerous other actions from numerous other actors began including, but not limited to; more people screaming, the security officer pulling a gun and telling Naota to drop the guitar and put his hands in the air, Naota turning towards the security officer who had spoken into his walkie talkie and getting a dark smile on his face, several more people screaming, Naota rushing towards the security officer, several people running, the security officer wetting himself, Naota's bass crashig into the security officer's head and sending him flying through the air, numerous people running, numerous people screaming.

Naota is now alone in the airport terminal save for his Rickenbacker and ten actual police officers with live ammo who had now arrived on the scene... Well that and several unconscious bodies strewn throughout the room and countless abandoned baggage.

"Drop the weapon and surrender or we will open fire," one of the policemen said.

This only excited Naota more. He flipped his bass around and now held it from body, neck facing towards the police. "Fire!" Naota laughed and one of the police officers flew into the wall behind him unconscious.

Now the police opened fire and Naota ran forward, easily dodging through the slow moving ammunition.

* * *

"Ahh..." Naota sighed as he slid into his seat, bass propped between his legs. "That was nice." He turned to the young girl sitting in the seat next to him. "There is nothing, and I mean nothing in the world, like taking a huge shit, wouldn't you agree?" 

The girl only looked at him and frowned. She couldn't have been in anything more than seventh or eighth grade.

"Attention passengers," the pilot came in over in intercom, "We're now about halfway through our journey and we'll be landing in Tokyo in roughly three hours and forty minutes."

"Ugh," Naota grunted, "four more hours of sitting. I hate sitting. It bores me. What about you?" he turned to the girl next to him. She still didn't say anything, only frowned at him.

He sighed and leaned his head back against the seat. In a few silent minutes Naota was asleep and snoring loudly (to the annoyance of everyone around him).

He was woken an unknown amount of time later by a strange strumming feeling near his crotch. He looked down and raised an eyebrow to see the girl strumming on his bass from her seat. She wasn't making any coherent form of musical composition but she was strumming his bass none the less.

"Why are you strumming my bass?" Naota asked sleepily to which the girl responded by immediately stopping and looking out the window.

He smiled at her. "Does it entice you?" he asked her, "Does it make you want to play it?"

She ignored him (or attempted to look like she was ignoring him) and continued looking out the window.

"I remember when I first saw this..." he muttered to both himself and the girl, "It wasn't mine to begin with you know. This thing is a hand-me-down from girl who changed my life. Mind you, MY guitar she stole when she left so it was only fair that she gave it to me..."

"My first guitar... hell, my first instrument in general, was my Flying V. Pulled it right out of my head she did." He laughed and noticed out of the corner of his eye that the girl was now looking at him.

He looked directly at her before she could turn away, "Do you want to learn?"

* * *

Naota stepped through the glass doors and breathed deep the toxic Japanese air. "Bye Naota," the girl waved as she dragged her somewhat large, red bag behind her towards whatever destination she was going. 

"Farewell Alice!" Naota waved in reply to his new friend, infinitely confident that he would see her again at some point. He watched her walk off in odd fascination. She held herself different than the absurd amount of kids her age do. She walked upright, not crouched and she moved as if trying to be as aloof as possible... Now he knew what it was that fascinated him. She's him when he was her age. Red hair and a taste for red in her clothing too... He smirked.

"Now!" he smacked his hands together, "Back to business... What was it I was to do next... Ah! My Vespa, that's right!" He started running off down the streets of Tokyo towards the drop point he'd been assigned to pick up his Vespa.

* * *

Well there you have it. End Chapter One. There won't be too many chapters in this... Definitely no more than six. Oh and before you start complaining because Naota's out of character. OF COURSE HE IS! That's the entire premise of the story! 

Alright, that's out of my system then.

Tell me what you think. -Jak


	2. Elephant

Author's Notes: Chapter two is up already? Wow... Well, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own FLcL. I never will own FLcL. Don't sue me.

Synopsis: Naota's returned to Mabase. Let's watch!

* * *

"And this," the teacher motioned behind her, a big fake white smiled plastered on her face, "is the centerpiece of the city of Mabase. The, now unused, Medical Mechanica building. It brought real industry to this once small town and, before being finally shut down on March 16, 2001, it was producing at an output of 40,000 a day." 

Alice raised her hand and the teacher paused her speech, "Yes? Do you have a question?"

"Yeeeah," Alice dropped her hand as she tried to think of a way to say it before finally settling on the most obvious, "40,000 what?"

"I'm sorry?" the teacher replied in confusion.

"40,000 what? You said it was producing 40,000 a day. 40,000 what?"

"I don't understand your question. Could you rephrase that?"

Alice sighed, "Just what did they make here at the Medical Mechanica building? What did they do?"

The teacher stared at her for a few moments and Alice thought for those few moments, but it couldn't possibly be true, that the teacher had never been asked that question before. Finally the teacher shook her head, "Look. We have a limited amount of time here and do you really want to waste it asking ridiculous questions? Now if you can manage to come up with a real question, Alice, then I'll gladly answer you."

And that was that. The whole rest of the field trip, any time Alice put her hand up the teacher would simply ignore her.

* * *

"Huh," Naota almost laughed as he pulled up to the building. "It looks... exactly the same." He parked along the curb and put down the kickstand but he didn't get off his Vespa just yet. For a minute or two he just sat there taking it in. 

Finally with a big breath he jumped off his motorbike and onto the sidewalk. "Ah! Could it be?" spoke a voice from behind the dirt coated shop window. Apparently whomever it was behind the window could see out at Naota but Naota could not see in at them. "Naota! It is you!" said the voice again and Naota now smiled as he recognized the voice.

"Hi dad, I didn't recognize your voice at first. Sounds much more gravelly than I remember," Naota replied.

"Ah well," Kamon said as he walked out the door of the shop to greet his son, "Years of smoking will do that to you. You've been gone a long time Naota."

Naota looked at his father for the first time in years and realized that he had indeed been away for a long time. Kamon's hair was still long and held back in a tail but it was noticeably receding in the front and flecks of gray were sprinkled throughout. "Come," Kamon motioned, "come give your father a hug and lets go inside to talk. I'll have the robot cook something up."

"Oh?" Naota almost laughed as he gave Kamon a hug and walked inside his old home, "Canti's still here is he?"

"Ah, yes indeed. The robot has been very useful in keeping the house from falling apart."

"I'm sure he has," Naota smirked knowing full well that all of the housework over the years had fallen on the robot.

Father and son sat down at dinner table and Kamon shouted, "Robot! Naota's come home! Why don't you make us some food?"

Canti's head poked into the room and his television face showed a large exclamation point appear on it before his head disappeared back around the corner. Naota assumed this meant surprise.

"So Naota," Kamon smiled from across the table, "just where have you been?"

"Around," Naota replied simply.

"Oh come now, you can tell me can't you?" Kamon leaned a little closer.

"Well its not a secret or anything I just don't feel..." Naota sighed, "I've been traveling."

"Traveling for nine years?"

"Yeah well, I couldn't stay."

"No, that's fine. You could have sent a postcard once in a while though."

Canti walked in at this point which immediately ended the conversation. The robot was bearing a tray with three bowls of curry. 'Ah curry, well doesn't that bring back memories?' Naota thought to himself. Canti started setting the table and Naota noticed something, "There's only three bowls. Does Canti not eat anymore like he used to?"

Canti and Kamon shared a look and both of them seemed suddenly rather sad. "I wanted to tell you Naota," Kamon said, "I really did. But, I didn't know where you were."

"Wanted to tell me what?" Naota was nervous now. He wasn't in the mood for bad news.

"Ah, I'm afraid that your grandfather has passed on."

"What? But... he was fine when I left."

"Naota... that was nine years ago. Three years ago Shigekuni was diagnosed with late stage skin cancer. We certainly didn't have the money for treatment and he refused to let us go into the debt so..." Naota was shocked and having trouble coming to terms with his grandfather's death. Kamon saw Naota's distress and tried to cheer him up, "Ah, but Naota come! We can't let news of a loved one's death cause us distress for he his in heaven now... or something like that. Either way, I'm hungry, you're hungry, so let's eat." Naota agreed and they started to dig in (Canti included).

* * *

Knock knock. 

"I'm coming."

Knock knock.

"I'm coming!" Eri shouted as she pulled her long, oddly purple looking when its in the right light, hair into a tight bun and put on her glasses, which she now requires in adulthood.

Knock knock.

"Augh!" she muttered as she dashed quickly down the stairs and threw open the front door. "What is it then?" she asks the strange looking man on her doorstep. He wore large black hat completed by his dark, well ironed suit and a full beard that obscured most of his face and hung nearly to his belly but was well trimmed none the less. He looked almost exactly like one of those pictures she'd seen of those people in America called the Amish.

"Hello," he said in Japanese that sounded like it was his second language. Likely behind English if he really was Amish. What's an Amish doing in Mabase? "My name is Jebediah, and I'm visiting this town as a missionary of a sort," the man continued and thus, in Eri's mind, confirmed his identity as an Amish person because from what she'd heard they were all named Jebediah or Jacob.

"Alright... what do you want with me?" Eri asked, legitimately confused what this Jebediah could possibly want from her.

"Well I was simply wondering if you've accepted Lord Canti, God of the Black Flames into your heart."

She shook her head, "What?"

"I asked if you've accepted our Lord, Jesus Christ into your heart," Jebediah repeated.

"Oh I thought you... I mean... Uh, nevermind. I just... If I say yes will you go away?"

Jebediah shook his head sadly, "Ma'am fooly cooly is the only true way to happiness."

"What?" Eri jumped and took a step back.

The Amish man raised an eyebrow, "I said Jesus is the only true way to happiness."

"No you sa-" she shook her head, "I need a drink."

She started to close the door but the man stopped it with his foot, "Miss Ninamori it's very important that you listen to me."

Eri stopped and looked at the Amish man, now somewhat frightened, "How do you know my maiden name?"

"Maiden name? You've married on me?" Jebediah said, his voice now sounded different somehow. Familiar even. Before she could stop him he pushed open the door and stepped inside the house.

Jebediah stood there and looked around the house as Eri stared at him intently and tried, unsuccessfully, to figure out this odd man and just why he seemed so familar.

"So Ninamori... Oh I'm sorry, married, right. So what should I call you now then Eri?" Jebediah asked as he took of his hat and coat. Without the hat now she could see that the beard was fake.

"Just who are you?" she asked.

"You don't recognize me Eri? I'm hurt. I really am," the man said as he pulled his fake beard off. "How about now?"

Her eyes opened wider than they have in quite a while and were real life like a cartoon her jaw would have hit the floor. Minus cartoon physics acting upon her jaw it just hung open as she stuttered out, "N-naota?"

Naota smiled, "Long time no see." He takes a small step and somehow they were now centimeters from each other. The step had been tiny and the distance between them prior to the step had been at least a foot and a half and yet this is how it works out. His crotch started to grind softly into hers and she shivered as she tried to take a step back but his arms at some point wrapped around her and she was trapped in his embrace. "Eri..." he murmured softly, "I can't believe you got married on me..."

She was looking down, trying very hard not to look at his face. "I thought you were g... gone," a pause in the middle of her sentence as Naota's now hardening crotch continued to massage her nether regions. "I didn't think you would come... back."

"Well I actually hadn't planned on coming back," Naota said as his hand lifted Eri's eyes up to meet his, "and yet here I find myself all the same."

He kissed her and, try as she might, Eri could not find the will within her to resist him.

* * *

THE AUTHOR SPEAKS: So endeth Chapter two. I could have continued this chapter a little more but I thought this would be a good note to end it on. Don't you think so? Enjoy. 


	3. Zebra

Chapter three. I'm amazed I managed to get this one out.

Disclaimer: I do not own FLcL or any such what have you. I do own a television, a dvd player, and the boxed set of FLcL but that's not the same thing unfortunately.

* * *

"Fuck," Alice swore as she brought her now bleeding finger to her mouth and sucked the blood off in an unintentionally sensual manner. She reached out again and shook the wire gate angrily. "Open up!" she shouted at the building, knowing full well that there was no one in it. She kicked at the gate now and it tremored for a moment then settled quiet and impassible just as it had been when she'd arrived.

"Not gonna get in that way," someone said softly next to her and a bass strum accompanied it.

"Ah, Naota?" she turned to face the figure and indeed it was Naota, sitting on a moped with the bass she'd first seen him with in hand. "What are you doing in this city? You got off in Tokyo."

"I could ask you the same question if I actually cared. I knew you'd be here though."

"Here? How could you possibly know that I was outside the Medical Mechanica plant at this exact moment? For that matter... are you stalking me or something?"

"Yes I am. But that's irrelevant. I didn't know you'd be 'here' parse. I knew you'd come to Mabase though. Meeting you here at the Medical Mechanica building was just chance... Mind you chance has a big play in the events to come, so you could say yes if you wanted to."

"Yes to what?"

"To everything."

"I'm not certain that I'm entirely following you."

Naota jumped off his moped and landed softly on the damp grass. He stood only a head and half above her but the way his arms hung loose and menacing at his sides and the strange sloping of his shoulders gave him the appearance of five or even ten heads above her. "Do you want to go inside?" he whispered so quietly she almost missed it.

"Inside... the plant?"

"Plant... building... its neither really. Doesn't even have a door to get in. Come on," he started walking toward the monolithic building and, willess, she followed him.

They'd walked about thirty feet before Alice stopped and looked at Naota's back strangely. "What happened to the fence?"

He turned his head to look at her, "What fence?" He was smiling in a fashion that both terrified and excited her. She tore her eyes away and turned to look back they way they'd come.

The gate appeared as if it had been torn off its hinges by a giant and carelessly tossed aside. "When did that happen?" Alice was terribly confused and tensed when Naota's hand rested on her shoulder.

"Sunset's coming... let's hurry up."

"Come on! Climb!" Naota shouted down to Alice. He could see the top of her fiery red hair slowly moving closer and closer to him at the top of the giant iron. Her left hand reached above her head and grasped at a small metal climbing spike Naota had left behind from his climb up here. The arguably sane man looked to the west at the setting sun and the firey red/orange that it set off. A large smile was plastered on his face and he shouted loudly in the face of the high altitude winds, "You've got ten minutes before the sun's gone Alice! Hurry up, hurry up!"

"Shut up!" she shouted up at him. "This is stupid! Why am I following you up here!" Naota looked over the edge and saw that she had paused in her climbing and had a very angry look on her face.

"You'll keep climbing. You know this and I know this. You'll keep climbing because you want to see it. You want to see what it looks like from the seat of god."

A grunt and Naota saw that Alice was now climbing down. "Tomorrow then," he said quietly to himself and turned to watch the sunset.

* * *

"And that's where we'll stop for today class. What did we learn about?" asked the teacher in Japanese. A student raised his hand. "Yes, Sanji?"

"We learned about the defenestrastion of Prague."

"Right, and what was that exactly..." the teacher's eyes scanned over the class and settled on Alice, "Ah, our American exchange student. What do you say the defenstration of Prague was?"

Alice looked up from her desk, angry at having been pulled out of her spacing, "The defenstration was the start of World War I or something like that."

"Well, it was a catalyst, yes. But there's more to it tha-" there was a knock at the door. "Yes?" the teacher asked.

"Oh, silly me. Wrong door," said the silhouette in the smokey glass and walked off the right.

The teacher raised an eyebrow and then immediately went back to teaching but Alice continued staring at the door to the hall. "There's no rooms to the right," Alice muttered quietly and just as she said this the silhouette was back in the doorframe knocking again.

"What is it?" the teacher asked again.

There was silence and then, "I think this might be right room after all. Is there an Alice... uh... hermersher in the room?"

"I'm sorry I didn't catch the last name you said but we do have an Alice in the room."

"Wonderful," the silhouette said, and seemed to be smiling.

Alice knew exactly who it was. "Go away!" she shouted at the door, "I'm not climbing that fucking iron!"

"Alice!" the silhouette in the door responded completely calm, "I'll be waiting at the gate again."

"I'm not climbing that thing!" but her shout was useless as the silhouette had left. Now the entire class was staring at her and she sank deep into her seat to try to avoid their stares. The teacher was staring at her as well.

After what seemed like forever the teacher returned to the board and started talking about things no one was listening to... because everyone in the class was looking at Alice.

"Psst," said the boy in the seat next to her, "Can I ask you what that was about?"

"No," Alice responded sullenly.

"Ah come on. That exchange was so strange... I just want it explained to me."

"And you won't."

"Pleeeease?" the boy was tugging on her sleeve and his voice was getting louder. Alice tried to shush him but he just got louder. "Are you some kinda pervert? Are you going to meet this guy for perverted things? Perversiony perverty pervert?"

"Alice!" the teacher scolded, "Could you keep your conversations for later hm? This is class." The boy went back to sitting in his seat and pretending to pay attention, but his eyes kept stealing glances at Alice throughout the class.

"So what's your name?" asked the boy after class, now accompanied by two other boys from the class.

Alice groaned and then grudgingly, "Alice."

"Alice huh?"

"Yeah," Alice put all her books into her bag and closed the flap, checking once to make sure she didn't forget anything, and then started walking out of the room. The boy and his friends hurried to keep up with her.

"So you're an American then?"

"Yep."

"Where's your goofy hat? I thought all Americans wore those goofy hats."

"Not all Americans are cowboys. In fact, I don't think there are even any cowboys left." Alice turned to face the boys, "Why is it everyone outside of my country associates us with cowboys? Is that really the most lasting picture we've made?" The leading boy shrugged, the other two followed. "I mean really," Alice turned back around and resumed walking, "We were the first people to the moon and yet everyone associates us with cowboys and pro-wrestling."

The four walked in silence for a while, now outside.

"My name's Ryuu by the way," said the lead boy who did all the talking. "On my left is Jun and on my right, Daiki."

Alice looked over her shoulder as she walked, "Nice to meet you I suppose."

"Your Japanese is really good."

"Well, I kinda had to have it down perfect before I left."

"I suppose that makes sense."

"So, do Jun and Daiki talk at all?"

"They will. They're shy around new people. And you're foreign so that makes them double shy. None of us have ever seen an American before except in your movies."

Alice shrugged and then stopped suddenly when she realized where she'd been walking. Quickly changing direction she started walking towards the river rather than to the Medical Mechanica plant.

* * *

"Ah Naota," Kamon poked his head in the door, "there is one Koici, Eri here to see you."

"Whoops. She didn't wait very long to stop by," Naota said from his position on the floor. Naota was laying on his back on the floor of his old bedroom. It was exactly the same as when he'd left, bunkbeds and everything. He idly strummed the bass laying on his chest and listened contented to the beautiful sound vibrations echoing out of the intrument. "Tell her to come up, I suppose."

"Alright," Kamon said as his head popped out of the door frame and disappeared, "I'll send her right up.

"Thanks dad." He strummed the Rickenbacker 4001 again.

* * *

She tried to skip a rock in the river but it sank immediately. "Damn."

Ryuu laughed, "That rock was to rounded if you wanted to skip it. You need a good flat one."

"Oh I'm sorry," Alice turned to Ryuu, "I wasn't aware you were to rock skipping expert."

"Not an expert... But the three of us come here a lot. It's a good place to sit and hang out."

"I could definitely see that."

"Yeah," he sat down on the bank and stared up at the sky, "my dad said he used to come here all the time when he was a kid."

Alice sat down next to him, "Where'd those other two go?"

"Search me. Probably doing something stupid."

Alice laughed.

* * *

"I just came to tell you that what happened can never happen again," Eri said from the doorway. Naota ignored her and strummed his bass. "Did you hear me?" she stepped closer to him, angry, "I'm married. What happened can never happen again, alright?"

Naota looked up at her, "So your last name is now Koichi? Isn't that the last name of that douchebag senator?" Eri's eyes looked away awkwardly. "If he's a douchebag on television and with his voting record I can't imagine he's any kinder in person."

"That's not the iss-"

"I mean voting against heavy controls on puppy mills... what a douchebag. How'd he get elected anyway?"

"We can't see each othe-"

"You married him to further your political career didn't you?" Naota stood up. "But then that sort of backfired because after being elected he went on to be one of the most hated politicians in recent memory. And now you'll always be associated with him if you try to run."

Her eyes were tearing up.

"You'll never get elected for anything now," he finished.

The levies broke and Naota took her in his arms, subtly closing the door behind her.

* * *

"So he wants you to climb that?" Ryuu asked, pointing at the Medical Mechanica building easily visible from the river bank.

Alice nodded, "He wants me to climb it for some reason. I honestly don't know why."

"You don't want to I assume?"

"That's the weirdest thing... I kind of do."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I can't admit that to him though. No way."

"Why don't you climb it then?"

"Because if I tell him I want to I feel like he'll... win."

"Don't tell him you want to climb. Just climb it without him."

"Don't you think that's a little dangerous to climb a giant hand iron by myself?" Alice looked at Ryuu and smirked.

Ryuu looked back at her and said, completely seriously, "I'll climb it with you then."

* * *

Quietly, he closed the door behind him. "Things to remember;" Naota said to himself as he walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, "Sex on a bunk bed is very uncomfortable. Especially when you're larger than the bed." He pulled a bottle of soda out of the fridge. It was one of the sour drinks. "Things to remember;" he said again as he popped the cap, "Buy a double bed." He chugged the drink and hurried outside. With suspicious ease he jumped onto his vespa and took off down the road, toward the giant iron.

When he arrived Naota was surprised to see Alice was here already. And she was climbing! He was about to get off and go help her, in case she fell or somehing but a closer inspection confirmed that there was a boy with her. Naota settled back onto his Vespa and smiled gaily, "They'll make sunset."

* * *

Ryuu looked down and immediately regretted it. "It's a really long drop," he muttered.

Alice heard him, "Then make sure not to fall. Use the spikes Naota left behind."

"I'm doing that... its still a really long way to fall."

"Then go back down. We're almost there and I want to see the top."

Ryuu sighed but didn't say anything. He continued climbing.

"We're there! We're there," Alice called and Ryuu hurried to catch up to her and gave a tiny wince of pain as he overextended his arm to reach the lip of the iron's handle. He finally pulled himself over the edge and lay on his back exhausted. "Its beautiful," Ryuu heard Alice say and forced himself to walk over to her and see.

"Wow," was all he could say.

"We made it just in time for sunset," Alice said.

* * *

End Chapter 3. Time to thank my (very) few reviewers. InuJoey, tasty cheez, and BrazeRancor, I could not have gotten this far without you.

For those wondering. I plan on making Rickenbacker 4001 six chapters. Just like the anime.

* * *


	4. Lion

_I know it's been quite a while since I've updated. But I haven't abandoned you. I've returned with a new chapter and everything, see?_

* * *

"Blah blah blah, blah. Blah Oxygen molecule blah blah," the teacher mumbled up at the front of the class. Alice could, and did, imagine that what the teacher was saying was actually something coherent and potentially important and if Alice were able to find it within herself to focus on the noises the teacher was making beyond the low rumble coming from its throat she'd probably find that she understood it. She didn't do this however and so no sense was made from what the teacher was saying.

"Psst," Ryuu whispered from the seat next to her. "That was pretty neat up there yesterday."

Alice didn't respond verbally but she made a tiny nod of her head to acknowledge she'd heard him.

"Psst," Ryuu whispered again, "Are you mad at me? It seems like you've been ignoring me or something."

Alice looked over at her new friend and smiled distractedly, "I'm not angry with you. I'm just lost in thought." Right after she said this the door of the classroom blew off its hinges and flew across the room, into the far wall. Right behind the door flew a school teacher, her eyes wide in fear and adrenaline and her feet and arms desperately searching for ground. To top off the parade of weirdness Naota entered, his bass held like a gun.

He scanned the room briefly and then his eyes alighted upon Alice. "Ha! Come with me!"

* * *

Rewind to several minutes ago, just outside the school.

Naota opens the door and steps inside. Just inside the door, against the wall, leans someone in a heavy coat. "Your N.O. has started acting up again hasn't it?"

"Not mine," Naota smiled at the man, "mine's been consistent since adolescence. You should know that though. You've kept tabs on me all these years after all."

"I can't confirm or deny that."

"Of course you can't."

"Where are the fluxuations coming from then?"

The dark haired young man could only smile back at the older reddish haired man in sunglasses.

"I need you to tell me Naota," the man became stern.

"Why..." Naota began to pull his Rickenbacker out from behind his back, "Why on earth would I tell you?"

"Dammit, Naota! Do you want the planet to die?"

The bass was now held out in front of Naota, like a bat, "I stopped caring about this planet a long time ago."

Bass flashed upward and deflected a bullet aimed for the eye. Naota spun and used the momentum to propel himself towards his adversary. The man dodged out of the way and bass collided with hard plaster. Bass won and hard, shattered pieces of plaster flew everywhere. Naota's head turned slowly around to face where the man had jumped to.

"This is crazy," the man said, "you're human. You should care about your planet. What did she do to you?"

Naota raised an eyebrow, "Did to me? She didn't do anything to me. She just showed me everything. Naota's outline seemed to shiver and before the man could react Naota was directly in front of him. "I'm going to win Amaro," a suspiciously hard, red bass collided with the side of Commander Amaro's head and sent him flying through the air.

* * *

"Ha! Come with me!" Naota grabbed Alice's hand and she, for whatever reason, found herself rising out of her seat and being pulled along by an excited Japanese man.

"Where are you taking me?" she asked him as he pulled her down a hall littered with unconscious bodies.

"You'll see," he smiled back at her and continued leading her along.

* * *

The sunlight stuck Naota's face in such a way that his maddened smile almost seemed kindly. Alice almost forgot for a moment that back in the school, in the darkened hallways, his smile had seemed to shine with an evil malice intent on destroying her. She didn't forget though and she finally ripped her hand away from Naota's and stepped away from him, rubbing her irritated hand irritatedly. "This is kidnaping you know. You kidnaped me. That's criminal. You're a criminal. Where the hell are you taking me anyway?"

Naota gestured around him. "We're here."

She looked and her eyebrows raised, "there's... nothing here."

"Oh there's quite a bit here," Naota gestured about him at the empty lot surrounding them.

"What's here then? You got me. All I see is an abandoned lot."

"Well then you aren't awake as I thought. I see a number of things. One of them is indeed an abandoned lot. However I also see a grass lot, a place to smoke pot, a place to fuck, a place to die, a place to fight-"

The last three resonated hard with Alice and she looked over at her captor, now significantly more scared than prior.

Naota looked at Alice, concern on his face, "Now really. You don't honestly think I'm attracted to you?"

Alice blushed fiercely and looked down at the ground, "I uh. I didn't... I..."

He gently took hold of her chin and lifted her face back to stare at him, "Alice, I'm much to old for you. Maybe in a few years... When you're older and more mature."

"Hey!" Alice's embarrassment, while still there, was now overshadowed by her anger, "I'm plenty mature! I'm a fucking adult!"

Naota knelt down and stared her directly in the face, "Saying fuck doesn't make you an adult. It's something else. Something much more important."

"Oh, Mister Wise Old Asian dude, what might that be?"

He stood back to his full height and started walking away. "I'm not telling." He laughed maniacally and jumped onto a motorcycle (actually moped but Alice doesn't know much about bikes) ,that she was quite certain had not been there a moment before, and took off.

And like that Alice was left abandoned in a strange empty lot, no idea where she was. And then she got a headache.

* * *

Back at the school Alice's class, and entire school for that matter, were in complete disarray. Ryuu, Jun, and Daiki took advantage of the chaos to escape the school grounds. "Where to now?" Jun asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Daiki replied, "We're delinquents now so our only option is to go stand in alleyways and smoke.

"Is that really our only option? I find I really don't like cigarettes though."

"I don't either but what can you do? We're delinquents," Daiki threw up his hands in defeat.

"But couldn't we buy leather jackets and slick back our hair to be delinquents?"

"That doesn't work anymore, teachers have caught on to it. Right now smoking in an alley is the only functional way to be a delinquent."

In exasperation Ryuu threw up his hands, "Would you two shut up? We aren't going to smoke in an alley."

"We're not?" they both asked.

"No. We're going after Alice," he replied.

"Who's Alice?" said Daiki.

"That's the American chick you're stalking right?" now Jun.

"I'm not stalking her!"

"Of course not," Jun laughed.

* * *

Alice screamed in both fear and pain as her head throbbed and flashed a bright red. The headache worsened and a strange bump grew larger and larger on her forehead.

Just before she felt like she was going to pass out Naota was there, holding her head up and pouring a bottle of water into her mouth. "Painful isn't it?" he smirked, "You get used to it though... and just when you do it stops forever." With that sentence he grabbed the bump on Alice's forehead and pulled hard.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!" Alice shouted at him.

"Helping."

"Looks more like you're trying to kill me!"

"That could, maybe, possibly, from another perspective, appear that way. However I assure I am well versed in this sort of medical ailment and I will treat in the most caring and safe way possible," then he frowned, "It's not coming out."

And then Alice's head hurt even more. The reason behind Alice's head hurting even more was that a bass guitar had suddenly struck her in the back of the head. "Out you come!" Naota shouted in a psychotic glee and swung into her head again. Surprisingly, this worked. The bump on her forehead grew at an exponential rate, lengthening and widening until finally it just snapped off.

The object that had just come out of Alice's head was a currently unconscious robot that looked suspiciously like one of the residents of Mushroom Kingdom from the Mario games but much larger. It woke up almost immediately however and any appearance it had like Toad disappeared as its neck stretched to absurd proportions and it's hands became menacing and clawlike.

"Medical Mechanica I'm guessing?" Naota asked the unresponsive robot. "I'm not asking if you are Medical Mechanica of course. That would be silly asking a single being if it were a galaxy wide corporation that used undeveloped planets as a source of cheap resources. No, I'm just asking if you're made by Medical Mechanica."

The robot made no response.

"See because if you're made by Medical Mechanica that means that either they've resumed their interest in this planet and the plant is going to start up again soon or you're just a leftover from inside the empty plant. If it's the first one that's really bad. If it's the second one that's still not good for my current situation but it does bode slightly better for the far reaching future."

This time the robot did make a response. But it wasn't words. Instead it was a large claw hand swiping in a horizontal fashion so as to cut Naota and Alice in half. Naota grabbed Alice by the waist and jumped over the Naota and Alice cutting in half hand only to find the second one coming at them. "Dear me!" Naota cursed and used his bass as a shield against the second hand.

* * *

By following the sounds of violence and strife, something Alice always seemed to be around, Ryuu found himself looking at the strangest of scenes.

* * *

Alice was buried under an unconscious Naota so her view of the goings on were obscured until the once Toadesque robot lifted Naota off of her. Then her view of the horrible robot was perfectly clear, something Alice was less pleased with then she thought she would be. With fear racing through her head and adrenaline pumping in her blood, Alice shot to her feet and ran like a bunny on fire. While running she spotted that dumb guitar thing Naota always carried around with him and she ran towards it. She didn't know why she ran towards the dumb guitar thing but instinct told her that it was her best chance of not dying horribly.

* * *

The scene Ryuu saw before him was something like this. Alice, hair disheveled and clothing covered in dirt and grime, was running with intent away from what appeared to be a large robot with a bulbous head, elongated neck, and claw hands. In one of its claw hand was a sleeping, or unconscious, guy who Ryuu recognized as the weird man who'd broken into the class and taken Alice.

* * *

Alice grabbed the Rickenbacker 4001 from the ground and turned to face the robot. It was right in front of her. She squeezed her eyes shut and swung the bass with nothing but hope that it would connect with the monster in front of her.

* * *

"Alice," Ryuu said quietly, "She swung the bat... or guitar I guess. I think it's a guitar."

* * *

Funny things can happen when a person closes their eyes to do something that normally require their eyes to be open. One example could be; when someone's trying to swing a bass at a violent robot that's running towards them and they close their eyes when trying to do so instead of connecting with the violent robot, as the robot was the intended target, they might instead hit their friend, or captor as the case may be, the robot has clutched in one of its hands.

Luckily enough for Alice this served to wake Naota from his trauma induced slumber.

Naota's eyes snapped open and to glanced around him for a second to take in his surroundings and remember where he was. Empty lot he noticed. Frightened Alice he noticed. Gripping metal claw around him he noticed. "Alice!" he shouted, "Hit it in the crotch! That's it's shut off switch!"

"How would you know that?" Alice shouted back at him, she now having resumed her previous tactic of running away from the robot.

"That seems to be a less than important question at the moment. Would you kindly crush this robot's balls?"

"Alright!" Alice whined and turned around again. The robot was seconds away from her. She took aim, eyes open this time, and swung.

* * *

"That was astonishing! No wait, amazing! Incredible!" Ryuu cheered Alice as she lay on her back, exhausted. The robot was shut down a few feet away. Ryuu was talking but all Alice could really focus on was Naota as he got back on his Vespa, his Rickenbacker 4001 returned to its place on his back, and started it up.

"I'll see you again soon Alice," Naota called, "I'm not done with you yet." And he drove off.

"Who is he?" Ryuu asked Alice.

She could only shake her head though, "I haven't the faintest idea."

* * *

_And it's done! This chapter at least. This is definitely the longest I've gone before coming back to a story. Hopefully I won't do it again. I'm feeling inspired though._


End file.
